Key Signature Chant

I love the month of January as a band director. I feel like it is the time I can really dig into teaching more major concepts that I've been prepping during the fall semester - especially to my beginners. During the first semester, I taught my beginners the major scales in pentatonics (the first five notes of the scales up and down). This was the second step in learning all twelve major scales by memory. The first step was reciting their musical alphabet up and down by memory starting on each letter of the alphabet. They had to start on A (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-A-G-F-E-D-C-B-A). Once they recited that without any mistakes in tempo by memory, they then moved on to letter B (B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-B-A-G-F-E-D-C-B) the next week. Then letter C the next week, then D, etc. After six+ weeks, when they had done all seven letters, they then had to recite all without stopping between each letter to become "Masters of the Musical Alphabet." We have a couple handfuls of "Masters" right now. 

Step two was learning the pentatonic scales. I started them on Concert Bb and then went down chromatically each week. The students had to play a different pentatonic scale each week for a chair test. I taught them to tongue up and slur down - just like they will be expected to do with the major scales. They could earn bonus points if they played the scale by memory - most of them did. 

I teach the beginner trumpets. Our warm-up includes breathing and buzzing exercises. I do a buzz echo with them - their ears have gotten so much better. We then play up chromatically in whole notes from low F-sharp. I've extended them to a top space E. Because I've been able to stretch their range, we started building full major scales. I had them write out all twelve yesterday. I taught them to spell scales using their musical alphabet and the formula (W-W-H-W-W-W-H). Because of their warm-up and what I've taught them, they know what whole steps and half steps are - as well as what sharps and flats are. With my beginner woodwinds, we are beginning to learn to play register and octave slurs. I am prepping my clarinets to cross the break correctly. Because of the difficulty of crossing the break, my beginner woodwinds' first full scale (that they tested on this week) was Concert F. I was able to test the beginner trumpets on Concert Bb. We will continue to learn the rest of the major scales. 

My next step will be to teach the students to memorize the order of sharps and flats in a key signature and what key signature you'll have with each scale. I made this handout I'll pass out this coming week. The students will keep it in their band binder and can refer to it often. 

I think once students understand how scales are built and realize it is just the alphabet with particular sharps or flats, then it's a piece of cake to play and memorize. Over my years of teaching, I've had students who try to memorize scales by memorizing the fingerings. That makes it way too difficult. To prove my point that it is better to think the letters of the alphabet instead of fingerings, I ask them fingerings of various notes in the scale. They always are able to tell me who to finger all the notes. I point out to them that they already know the fingerings, that it is pointless to try to memorize the fingerings. Once I show them how easy it is to play their scales by reciting their musical alphabet in their head as they play their scales, I see the lightbulb turn on. They then get so excited that the scales are then so "easy" to play. By requiring beginners to recite their musical alphabet forwards and backwards by memory, I'm arming my students with the tools to be able to play scales easily. 

We all know that scale are the building blocks to music. If I can teach my students all twelve major scales early on, I can then teach them the minor scales, and even teach them modes. Nowadays, sight-reading music is often written in minor scales and modes. It is written with the key signatures of F, Bb, and Eb, but aurally is not in those major keys. When students are able to play in any key signature and recognize any accidental, the world of music is opened up to them. Learning scales is exciting!

Note: I do not have anything against Ford cars. In fact, I've found them to be very good cars. Feel free to change the F to Foreign. Someone taught it as Ford Cars to me, and that has stuck.